Usability of a GNU/Linux Distribution from Novice User’s Perspective

.....................................................................................................................3 Introduction:...............................................................................................................6 Chapter 1: Background ..................................................................................................8 1.1 Usability and "user-friendly" ...............................................................................8 1.2 Why usability in software development ..............................................................8 1.3 Open source software...........................................................................................9 1.4 OSS Community ..................................................................................................9 1.5 Ubuntu..................................................................................................................9 Chapter 2: Problem Definition and Goals....................................................................10 2.1 Problem Definition.............................................................................................10 2.2 Challenges..........................................................................................................10 2.3 Expected Outcomes ...........................................................................................10 Chapter 3: Methodology ..............................................................................................12 3.1 Research Methodology ......................................................................................12 3.2 Literature Study .................................................................................................13 3.3 Conducting Usability Testing ............................................................................14 3.4 Preparing for interview ......................................................................................14 3.5 Conducting Interview.........................................................................................14 Chapter 4: Theoretical Work .......................................................................................15 4.1 Definition of HCI...............................................................................................15 4.2 Summary from different usability definitions....................................................15 4.3 Free/Open Source Software ...............................................................................17 4.4 Importance of usability in Open Source Software.............................................17 4.5 Overview of Ubuntu ..........................................................................................19 4.6 Usability testing procedure ................................................................................19 4.7 Think Aloud Protocol ........................................................................................20 Chapter 5: Empirical Work..........................................................................................21 5.1 Usability testing on Ubuntu 8.04 .......................................................................21 5.2 Participant’s description and selection Procedure .............................................21 5.3 Testing environment and Testing Equipment ....................................................21 5.4 Description of Usability Test Cases...................................................................22 5.5 Conducting Usability Test .................................................................................22 5.6 Conducting Interview.........................................................................................23 Chapter 6: Results ........................................................................................................24 6.1 Usability testing results......................................................................................24 6.2 Observations from usability testing ...................................................................25 6.3 Bug Reporting....................................................................................................30 6.4 Feedback from Ubuntu Forum...........................................................................31 6.5 Results from the Interviews ...............................................................................31 6.6 Interview with Mr. Henrik Sandklef ..................................................................31 6.7 Interview with Mr. Andreas Nilsson..................................................................31 Chapter 7: Discussion and Analysis ............................................................................33 7.1 Discussion and Analysis ....................................................................................33 7.2 Answer to research Questions............................................................................36 7.3 Validity Assessment...........................................................................................37